


Blue Team, +41 years

by equivalencept



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Blue Team, Gen, team bonding!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 05:02:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8191180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equivalencept/pseuds/equivalencept
Summary: A twoshot. Chapter one: Onboard the UNSC Infinity, in between missions, Blue Team spends time together.Chapter two: A brief follow-up of the first chapter for Kelly-087's birthday on September 21st.





	1. Chapter 1

A soft scraping noise woke John up. Someone was moving only a few inches away from his bed.

He immediately tensed, but relaxed when he saw it was only Fred. He was sitting in the middle of Blue Team’s dark room, pulling on his boots. The sound of Fred’s boots hitting the floor was probably what had woken him.

 _Time to get up, then_ , John thought, and pushed himself up on one arm. _Mission tomorrow morning, so a relaxed training regimen today. We should-_ His thoughts were stopped when Fred held up his hand, fingers splayed. ‘ _Halt.’_ Fred then made the Spartan hand signal for ‘ _sorry’_ and _‘early’_. Blue Team, and the Spartan IIs in general, used a mixture of military hand signals and unique hand signs they’d created themselves to communicate with each other, even outside of missions. They weren’t nearly as fully developed or complex as actual sign languages, but Blue Team could understand each other well enough with very minimal hand signals. With those few hand signals, Fred was saying, _Wait, I’m sorry, it’s too early_.

John glanced across the room, and saw Linda and Kelly were still asleep. Several things clicked into place. If it was time for them all to get up, Fred would not be trying so hard to be quiet. He probably would have turned the lights on already, too. John laid back down in his bed, but reached for his COM pad. Activating the screen, he saw that it was only 2:18 in the morning. The 23rd of September, 2558. Mission at 0400 tomorrow, but today Blue Team did not have to get up until 4:45.

John put out his hand to get Fred’s attention, who by now had finished lacing up his boots, and crooked his thumb. The motion meant _‘?’_. _What are you doing?_ , John was asking.

Fred waved the question away, which was odd. John couldn’t think of a reason why Fred wouldn’t tell him what he was doing. John just repeated the _‘?’_ motion.    

Fred stood up and signaled back: _‘all clear’, ‘me’, ‘return’, ‘0445’_. John mentally translated: _Nothing’s wrong, I’ll be back by 4:45_. Fred continued to signal: _‘order’, ‘you’, ‘sleep’_. _Go back to sleep, John._

Fred moved to go to the door, but hesitated, looking back at his friend. John briefly considered making Fred tell him what he was doing at this hour, but decided against it. He finally nodded, and Fred left.

After the door clicked close, John lay in bed, thinking and listening to the sounds in the room. To tell by their breathing, Kelly and Linda were still deep asleep.

John thought, concerned, though trying not to feel it. This was hardly the first time Fred had gotten up earlier than the rest of the team; each of them had wakened before everyone else at many points in their lives, usually to get in more training or because they couldn’t sleep. But that was it, wasn’t it? They’d all had a reason, and if one of them had asked the other why they were getting up early, ‘ _training’_ or _‘can’t sleep’_ would have sufficed. Fred hadn’t given any reason this time, though. He was acting cagey.

And he’d been prepared to leave early today, hadn’t he? John shifted in his bed. Fred had set out his clothes last night at the end of his bed. Unusual for him, but at the time John had not thought anything of it. In hindsight, Fred probably did it so he wouldn’t wake everyone else up with the horribly loud squeaky noise his footlocker made whenever it was opened. So he _had_ been planning to get up early today. But why?

John shook his head slightly, just to himself, and turned over onto his side. He was overthinking this, worrying about nothing. At the end of the day, John trusted Fred. Whatever secrets Fred was keeping, he’d tell the team soon enough. John just didn’t want-…well, with recent events, John wanted to know his team was safe.

John slowed his breathing, preparing to go back to sleep, like Fred had told him to.

And besides, Fred was crap at keeping secrets. Whatever it was, he and Kelly and Linda would get it out of him in the morning. Within a few minutes, John was asleep again.

 

 

4:48 am

“He said he’d be back by 4:45?” Kelly said, buckling her belt.

“Yes.”

“And he _didn’t_ say he couldn’t sleep, or he wanted to get an earlier training session in?” This came from Linda.

“No. He was vague about what he was doing. And we have a mission tomorrow. He wouldn’t take even more time to train when he’s supposed to relax.” This is the second time they’ve had this conversation in nearly as many minutes. John was trying to keep the note of concern out of his voice. Kelly and Linda, on the other hand, seemed more curious than worried, which made more sense than John’s reaction. They were on the UNSC _Infinity_ , not behind enemy lines. There wasn’t much trouble Fred could even get into. John had nothing to worry about.

John suddenly, sourly, remembered himself many years ago, poking fun at Fred for getting worried whenever his teammates were out of sight.

_“They’re not Schrödinger's Soldiers, Fred,” he’d teased. “They’re not half-dead just because you can’t see them.”_

_“No, of course not. Spartans never die,” Fred had said, rolling his eyes._ After that, Fred had limited how much he worried about his teammates, at least out loud.

John sat down on his bed, putting on his boots, while Linda continued, “Maybe he has a surprise for us. Like food.”

Kelly, also pulling on her boots, snorted. “Surprise for what? It’s not like it’s anyone’s birthday.” None of them remembered their specific birthday, so that was a moot point.

“Didn’t you say you thought your birthday was in September or November, though?”

“Yeah, but I’m only turning 47. What’s to celebrate?”

“Maybe he’s making you a cake.” Linda deadpanned this, but John recognized her tone as one that was only half kidding.

“I’ll be very unhappy if he made preparations for your birthday and didn’t let me help,” John said, and reached for his COM pad, opening up the messaging system. Even if John _weren’t_ concerned about Fred, his team deserved to know what he was doing.

He’d only managed to type ‘where’ when a noise that wasn’t quite a knock came from the door. John and the rest of his team paused, and when the noise repeated itself a few moments later, he recognized the sound of someone kicking the door. John moved to the door, opened it, paused.

“Sorry I’m a bit late. You can’t fully predict when food is going to be done.” Fred was standing in the doorway, arms loaded with thick containers that could hold food at whatever temperature they were placed in for hours at a time.

John got over his initial surprise and took the top container – a carton with four large coffee cups in it – off of the pile Fred was holding. He stepped to the side to let him enter. John was a little surprised, but Fred had done this before – cooking them all food and bringing them breakfast. He had always told them in advance that he was doing it, though, and John wondered what the occasion was this time.

Linda hummed, smugly, John thought. She always was good at predicting what her teammates were up to. “Did you make cake?” she asked, beginning to pull containers out of Fred’s arms.

“What? It’s five in the morning, why would I make cake?”

“For Kelly’s birthday?”

“What? It’s Kelly’s birthday?” Fred looked wide-eyed at Kelly. “Why didn’t anyone tell me? Wait, when did we learn our birthdays?”

“No, it’s not- we didn’t- let’s just set up the food.” Kelly started placing the containers in the only free space in the room, in between their beds.

Fred hesitated, looked at John. “If this is alright?”

“It’s fine. We were just going to go to the mess hall anyway. We have a mission tomorrow, so a light training regimen today.” John said the last sentence a bit louder, so Kelly and Linda were sure to listen to it.

With no other place to sit and eat, the four of them sat on the floor with their backs pressed against their beds, with John and Kelly across from Fred and Linda, and the food in between them. And there was a lot of different types of food, if only a small portion of each. Waffles, hash browns, eggs, fruit salad, an assortment of different types of bread, different types of cold-cut meats, some kind of soup, as well as Hungarian breakfast food that John recognized from Reach, though he had never learned the name to them. There was also orange juice, as well as the coffee, which John reached for first.

“So,” Kelly began after she pulled two steaming waffles from a container onto her plate. “What’s all the food for, if not to celebrate my existence?”

“Is this hazelnut?” John interrupted, after taking a sip of the coffee. “Where did you get this?”

“Did you make all this yourself?” Linda asked. John’s team mostly lived off of MREs and mess hall food and snacks from vending machines. While a lot of it was good, getting Fred to cook for them was a treat.

“Wardroom,” Fred said, tapping the LTJG on his name tag. “They have a small kitchen and a lot of ingredients. I made the waffles, hash browns, eggs, soup, and the Reach food. I got everything else from the wardroom. There’s alcohol there too, but it’s too early for that. And-”

“-We have a mission tomorrow,” John and Fred at the same time. Fred flapped his hand at John, the time honored ‘yes-I-know’ gesture.

Kelly _hmph_ -ed, mouth full of waffles, before swallowing and repeating, “What’s the occasion for all this food? You normally tell us beforehand when you do this. But you didn’t this time. You had John all worried, so what’s up?”

Fred looked quickly to John. “Oh I’m-  I’m sorry. I didn’t tell you all because I wanted to surprise you. It’s September 23rd.” When that date failed to get a response from his teammates, Fred said, “So, it is the 41st anniversary of the start of the Spartan II program.” He paused again, fidgeting with his butter knife. “The day I met all of you.”

“Oh, Fred,” Linda began.

Kelly reached diagonally across the food to rub Fred’s head with both hands. “You huge _sap_ , Fred!”

Fred swatted at her hands, but stopped when John nudged his foot with his own. “How did you even remember that date?”

Kelly finally let go of Fred’s head, and spooned some of the fruit salad onto her plate. “Yeah, how do you remember that date but not your birthday?”

“Dr. Halsey mentioned it to me while we were in Onyx. Or Trevelyan, whichever.” Fred started to dig into his soup.

“Ah. I must not have been present for that conversation.” Kelly pulled her own coffee from the container. “Shall we make a toast?”

“How?” Linda said, “Fred didn’t bring any.”

John snorted. Kelly said, “Weak, Linda. That was just _bad_.”

“John liked it.”

“John thinks puns are the pinnacle of humor.”

“ _Pun_ acle, Kelly. At least _try_.” This came from Fred, and it earned him a strawberry from the fruit salad thrown at him.

“Kelly thinks that pun was _berry_ bad.” Linda got a slice of banana thrown at her.

“These puns are really driving her bananas,” Fred said.

“Really, Kelly? I think these fruit puns are _grape_ -”

“Okay,” John had to interrupt Linda before the conversation got further derailed, “are we making a toast or not?”

“You mean am _I_ making the toast,” Kelly said. John gestured assent. Blue Team had long ago accepted that Kelly was the only one remotely good at making speeches.

Kelly paused, thinking, before raising up her coffee cup. “So. It’s been 41 years since this has all started. In that time, we’ve fought a war, sometimes on two fronts, and been to hell and back together. We’ve made many friends, many brothers and sisters and siblings. And we’ve lost a lot of them, too.” Kelly breathed deeply, and John halfway regretted changing the conversation from puns to this. Kelly continued, “May our future endeavors be successful, and with little loss.” The four of them clinked their coffee cups together.

John drank deeply and, after a moment of quiet, said, “It feels like you’ve been my teammates forever, but now that I think about it, I’ve only been with Kelly since the beginning.”

“Yeah,” Kelly said, “Fred and Linda, you guys came later. I don’t know if I remember the circumstances though…”

“I was assigned to Blue Team when we were eight, I believe,” Linda said, “shortly before you became squad leader, John. I became a reoccurring member after that.”

“I wasn’t assigned to Blue Team until we were-” Fred flipped-flopped his hand- “eleven? Well, _assigned_ isn’t the right word.”

“Oh, I remember now!” Kelly sat up straighter. “How could I forget? You always used to lose to us – me, John, and Sam – whenever we were practicing CQC. Except one day, when our trainers were not, uh, present, and you kicked me and Sam to the curb. John then insisted you were placed on our team for the next mission.”

“After that, Blue Team was able to rid you of your bad habit of purposely underperforming. Well, mostly,” John said. Fred almost never got first place in anything during boot camp, even though John was sure he could have in some subjects. Fred still hadn’t completely kicked the habit, even 32 years after boot camp. Fred had all but thrown the title of team leader back to John, even though he outranked him and had been leading the team for over five years.

As the conversation went on, and Linda and Kelly reminisced more about boot camp, John could feel the tension he’s had since he woke up start to fade.

Fred nudged John’s foot with his own. Fred made the _‘Sorry’, ‘you’, ‘distress’ ‘B’, ‘4’_ hand motions to him. _Sorry to have made you worry, earlier._

John smiled softly, quickly, and made the _‘all clear’_ hand signal back at him. _No problem_.

“Thanks for the food, Fred,” he said aloud, which Kelly and Linda quickly echoed.

Mission tomorrow. But today, he could afford to relax with his team. 


	2. Birthday Cake

Kelly hummed, pulling her still slightly wet hair into a messy bun as she walked from the showers back to her team’s room. 

They’d gotten back from their last mission three hours ago. After getting out of their armor, John had disappeared to a debriefing meeting with Lasky, and Fred had gone off to medical to get an injury looked at. That left Linda and Kelly to tend to their gear. After that, Kelly was still too keyed up from the mission, and invited Linda to go to the  _Infinity_ ’s gym with her and work off some of her excess energy. Linda had declined, and left to go to their room to rest.

_All in all, a good workout_ , Kelly thought, continuing her walk,  _besides those three IVs who were laboring under the impression I was a new recruit._

Her thoughts were cut off by a ping from her COMpad.

_-R u done w ur workout?-_ This came from Linda. Kelly responded. 

_-y y?-_ Kelly realized after she sent it that it was not clear she meant ‘yes, why?’ but didn’t bother to correct her error. Linda would get her meaning. 

_-good knock on door before entering-_  

Kelly squinted at the odd request, but didn’t ask for clarification. Linda had gotten to her just in time; she was almost back to their room. She knocked on their door, and got a muffled ‘ _wait a moment_ ’ from Fred in response.

After a solid 30 seconds, during which Kelly’s eyebrow raised higher and higher, the door swung open. Her questions died on her lips when her teammates exclaimed “Happy birthday!”

She stared at them, eyes moving from John to Linda to Fred to the small light blue cake on a plate in Fred’s hands.

“Oh,” she managed to say, “you guys...”

John pulled her gently into the room. “Happy birthday, Kelly.”

“What, no candles?” she tried to joke, as she started to grin.

“Unfortunately, no,” Fred said, settling the cake on his footlocker. Kelly noticed there were already plates, napkins and silverware set up. “We do have cups of ice cream, though. Vanilla and strawberry.”

“Did you actually go to medical?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Fred said, thumping his shoulder, where a bandage peaked out from under his shirt. “They just cleaned it and slapped some wrapping on it, though. It only took ten minutes. Then I made the cake.”

She raised an eyebrow at John and Linda. John, taking the hint, said, “I did have the meeting with Lasky, of course. Then Linda and I went to go ice the cake.”

“I chose the color,” Linda piped up, beginning to cut the cake. “I vetoed John’s choice of dark green.”

“I like it.” She took the strawberry ice cream cup that John offered her. “Honestly, you guys - thank you, so much, but what prompted this?”

“You reminded us last week that you thought your birthday was in late September or November. We wanted to celebrate,” Fred said, as he finished moving the pieces of cake to four plates.

“And it’s another excuse to eat cake,” Linda said.

“Want a piece?” John asked. 

Kelly nodded, and smiled as the four of them settled down to eat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter, as the one before it, was originally published on tumblr.

**Author's Note:**

> This work and the next chapter were originally published on my tumblr.


End file.
